The Color of Sin
by redcandle
Summary: Over the years Stannis Baratheon suffers a sexual obsession with his brother's queen Cersei Lannister.


Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and elements from A Song of Ice and Fire belong to George R.R. Martin. No copyright infringement is intended.

_She's beautiful but Stannis can see beneath her beauty. The world knows her lord father and her twin brother for their crimes and there's a monstrous younger brother as well, but the first time he lays eyes on Cersei Lannister he can tell she's the worst of them. She has eyes like emeralds and red lips that curve lusciously, but Stannis detects something malicious about the set of those lips, something wicked in those eyes. He dislikes her immediately. But she is his brother's wife and his queen so he bows and kisses her hand._

Little Renly was a better dancer than Stannis. The best that could be said about Stannis was at least he didn't step on her feet. He moved stiffly and his expression betrayed his discomfort. Cersei was surprised he asked for a dance, surprised he even knew how to dance. But a proper lord would have had dancing lessons and a proper lord would dance with his brother's bride, and Stannis was nothing if not proper. The hand that clasped her own was cold, as were the blue eyes that looked down at her when she sought to engage in polite conversation. She was relieved when the song ended and he released her. When the next song began and Robert seized her around the waist and spun her around high in the air, she could still feel Stannis's frigid gaze on her.

_Stannis is shocked that even Robert would be so debauched as to bed the bride's maiden cousin during the wedding feast and angry that his brother would disrespect him by doing it in his marriage bed. He finds it curious that Robert would bed such a plain girl when his wife is available. Delena is fairer than Selyse but not by much. She is certainly no match for Robert's queen. He tells himself that is the reason Cersei Lannister is in his thoughts when the guests leave and he is alone in the dark with his bride. It matters not that Selyse has an ugly face and a stick thin body; when he spreads her legs and drives himself inside her, he imagines the queen beneath him._

It was bad enough that Robert had been caught with the girl by half the nobles in the stormlands, but now the little slut was pregnant. Oh, Robert had other bastards; the sons and daughters of tavern wenches and fish wives. This was different. This brat would be highborn and Stannis was already insisting that Robert acknowledge it when it was born. It had been all she could do to keep from flinging her wine in his face when he broached the subject at dinner. If he'd stayed out of her business and plowed his ugly wife, Selyse's belly might have been as big as her slut of a cousin's.

_Queen Cersei's gown is indecent. The bodice plunges so low that it reveals the swell of her breasts and the rest of it is cut so tightly that one glance is enough to determine the exact ratio between her slender waist and broad hips. The gown is made of silk in Lannister crimson, the color of freshly spilled blood. The woman looks as though she should be in a brothel rather than at court. Stannis glances discreetly at the other ladies, some of whom are dressed worse and none of whom exude the same aura of carnality. Robert's voice booms impatiently and Stannis realizes he has not paid any attention to the petitioner kneeling before the small council._

Men had been staring at Cersei since before her first flowering. There had never been a man she'd met who did not want to bed her. Her father had turned down countless marriage proposals from high lords and Cersei had turned down innumerable requests for assignations from young knights. The guardsmen leered at her when she walked by, and once when she disguised herself as a serving girl to go to Jaime a drunken commoner had groped her. The way Stannis Baratheon looked at her was different. It made her feel unclean, and that made her angry. Brother or not, it was a wonder Robert had tolerated his forbidding presence for so long. However Cersei couldn't think of any way to get rid of him. She'd heard the man had proposed outlawing whoring and even that hadn't made Robert banish him to those barren rocks he called home. When next he stared at her, Cersei met his gaze and held it until he looked away.

_Stannis reminds himself that the Kingslayer is the queen's brother. Surely there was nothing lascivious in the way Cersei looked at Ser Jaime; surely it was an illusion of the fires lighting the Great Hall. But he remembers the tourney Robert held to celebrate the tenth year of his reign. Jaime Lannister had been champion and he'd named his sister the queen of love and beauty. Stannis remembers well the smile on Cersei's face when her brother placed the crown of red roses atop her golden curls. The Kingslayer had knelt before her and held both of her hands between his and kissed them, looking as proud and happy as a lover who'd just won the heart of a maiden. No. Such a thing was an abomination. Stannis grimaces. He is not usually given to such flights of fancy; this is why he does not usually imbibe wine._

Cersei could tell when the way Stannis stared at her changed; before there had been something darker than men's usual lust, but now there was suspicion and anger. Her worst fear was confirmed when he began to spend time with Jon Arryn and the old man also started to look closely at her. They looked at Jaime and her children too. Jaime laughed it off when she confided her fears to him, but her twin had never bothered himself with anything but swords. Arryn was an old man and old men died. It would not be difficult to stop him before he went to Robert. Stannis was another matter. He was relatively young and strong; poison would be too apparent. She could send a catspaw but there would be an investigation if the Lord of Dragonstone was found murdered. She needed to think of another way to stop him.

_Stannis is tempted. He is only a man after all and the whore is very beautiful. Her hands are warm where they clutch his own, and the way she leans towards him in that low-cut gown allows him an ample view of full breasts that he yearns to touch. She is his brother's wife, though Robert has been a poor brother and the refusal to grant him Storm's End is only one of many humiliations. But blood is blood. He opens his mouth to castigate his brother's faithless queen, but she throws her arms around him and he finds himself unable to speak. Her kiss is like nothing he has ever felt before. Suddenly he understands why his brother and Rhaegar Targaryen tore the realm apart for Lyanna Stark. Then he remembers that if his suspicions are correct - and he is certain they are - Cersei Lannister also kisses her brother this way. He cannot taint himself with the very parts of her that have engaged in such foul sins. Stannis shoves her away roughly and leaves her sprawled on the floor._

She would see his blood on her brother's gilded blade and his head would decorate the walls of this very castle. To be rejected by the likes of Stannis Baratheon rankled Cersei. It was surely a jape of the gods for her fate to be put in the hands of the one man too cold to be seduced. But Cersei had to agree with Stannis that power was more beautiful and desirable than even her. She should have realized that he would never agree to keep quiet about her secret. If her secret was revealed, Stannis would become the heir to the Iron Throne. What was momentary physical pleasure compared to such power? However she knew many men would have chosen her over power; her own twin had made that choice. Grudgingly, she felt some respect for Stannis. He had overcome the weakness of his sex and that made him a very dangerous enemy.

_Exquisite breasts and creamy skin draped in red silk are the first things Stannis notices upon his return to Dragonstone. The red priestess speaks of righteous war and prophecies and tells him he will be king. Her body radiates warmth and her voice is impassioned when she urges him to save them all from the darkness. Stannis listens to her._


End file.
